Mad About Netflix Prices? Here Are Some Alternative Services

BlockBuster by Mail is a DVD-by-mail service with the added bonus of being able to swap out rented discs at BlockBuster retail locations (up to five per month). It touts “many new releases available 28 days before Netflix and Redbox” as well. Video game rentals are included, too.

It’s not exactly DVD-by-mail, but Redbox rental kiosks can be found at over 27,000 retail locations across the country. Pricing for DVDs starts at $1 per day, with rentals due back by 9pm the next day. Blu-ray movies start at $1.50 per day and video games start at $2 per day.

Hulu Plus is a streaming service that costs $8 per month and skews heavily toward TV shows, offering “over 1,000 seasons of current and classic shows.” It’s got a handful of movies—”hundreds of movies and documentaries”—as well as “hundreds of exclusive films from the Criterion Collection.” Despite the subscription fee, however, TV shows feature “limited advertising.” The service works with several devices and set-top boxes.

Amazon shoppers can pay $79 per year for free two-day shipping on many of the products sold by Amazon. As a perk, Prime members also have access to free movies and TV shows through Amazon Instant Video. However, the selection is currently limited to just 6,000 movies and TV shows, most of which aren’t exactly big-name titles.

On-Demand Streaming Services

If you want the widest selection of stream-able content and are willing to pay a bit more, several services offer on-demand streaming rentals starting at around $2-$3 apiece for movies and $1 for TV shows.